The Role Swapper Preschool (Patreon)

Jill Gorin drove down the suburban street of Jackson Avenue looking for the address. The GPS announced the address would be on the right in one-quarter of a mile. Still, she couldn't see the entrance from here.

Jill was going to check out the preschool for her daughter. This was her first child and thus the first time she ever had to look over a school. The Stafford School for Budding Childhood Wisdom was highly recommended to her by some of the people she trusted the most. Despite the recommendations, Jill felt compelled to check out the preschool institution for herself. She became more and more apprehensive as her car neared the entrance.

The school was offset from the street. Due to the lawn with a variety of trees and bushes the school building itself couldn't be seen from the road. But a sign, held aloft by two white cylindrical polls broadcast to the world the turnoff to enter the school property.

Jill made the turn and headed to the guest parking lot. She had to make a right turn to pass the school on the way. On the left side of the school, little four-year-old Eric Arlin hid from sight. Eric was a handsome child wearing a red and dark gray striped shirt, jeans, white socks, and black sneakers with a yellow Nike swish. He was taking a smoke break. His Marlboro cigarette was about a quarter smoked. He would spend another three or four minutes outside until he was done. Inside his front pocket was an opened pack of cigarettes that was full except for three cigarettes. At 10:00 that was all he had smoked today.

Smoking wasn't allowed in the school building. Those that wanted to smoke had to smoke outside. But even if smoking was allowed there, there was an unspoken rule that anyone who smokes shouldn't be seen doing so by any of the parents of the students and certainly not allow the preschoolers to see them smoking. Thus, those who wanted to smoke had to do so at the sides of the school building. The back of the building wasn't appropriate since the outside playground and grassy activities area was there.

Eric wasn't always a smoker, although he remembered smoking for decades. He was just one of the victims of the Role Swapper who had just visited his school.

Jill didn't see the little boy smoking. She parked her car and then texted the school to announce her arrival.

“I just got here,” Jill messaged her contact at the school.

“Are you in the school?” Mrs. Jaffers replied.

“No, the parking lot.”

“OK, I'll meet you at the front entrance.”

“I'll be there in two minutes.”

“See you soon.”

Jill exited her car. She wasn't sure how to dress to look over a preschool. She dressed nicely wearing a white spread-collar cotton shirt with long sleeves and button cuffs. Her top two buttons were open, but there wasn't a hint of her cleavage to be seen. She paired it with gray pleated ankle-length stove pipe slacks and white ballet flats. She slung her black chain wallet shoulder bag over her shoulders and walked briskly to the front entrance.

Jill looked over the building as she walked. The Stafford School was a one-floor brick building with white trim running across the top. The windows and doors were all painted white. Bushes were planted under each of the windows. Four columns held up the triangular awning at the center of the building at the main entrance. Decorative benches underneath the awning gave visitors and those waiting for the children a place to sit.

Entering the building, Jill saw the security guard waiting at his desk. There didn't seem to be any metal detectors at the entrance.

Jill sighed and she thought, “There is security everywhere, even preschool.” Jill remembered it differently from when she was a child. Maybe there was security, but Jill didn't notice it thirty years ago.

“Hello how can I help you?” the uniformed security guard asked pleasantly. Jill couldn't see stocking feet, nor his high-heeled pumps. The six foot two security office didn't wear his pumps while sititng, they were hidden out of sight under his desk. He would put them on if he needed to stand.

“I'm here for the tour. Mrs. Jaffers was supposed to meet me.”

“One second.”

“I got it, I got it,” a young woman called out.

Jill looked up and saw who she thought was Mrs. Jaffers approaching. Mrs. Jaffers wasn't as Jill expected. Jill expected an older woman as Jill was told that Mrs. Jaffers was one of the assistant principals. The woman who approached couldn't be more than 22 years old. She was dressed in a slouchy fit cream-white blazer atop a floral shirt that is tucked into black slim-fit jeans. The look was certainly professional, but her youthful appearance surprised Jill.

There wasn't any way to know, that when this woman woke up in the morning, she wasn't Mrs. Jaffers. The Role Swapper had swapped Mrs. Jaffers with one of the junior staff that worked in the main office. At this moment, the real Mrs. Jaffers, a woman in her sixties, was running hundreds of copies for the teachers and the office.

“Welcome to The Stafford School!” the woman said cheerily. “Are you ready for the tour?”

“Yes, I am. Mrs...” Jill was about to ask a question but was cut off.

“Call me Linda.”

“OK, Linda. This is my first child. This is all new to me”

“What is your child's name?”

“Her name is Melody.”

“What a lovely name. I'm sure Melody will have a lot of fun here. Children learn best through play, so there’s no shortage of fun learning experiences here!”

Jill smiled, “I hope so.”

“She will.”

There weren't many people in the halls. The doors to the rooms were mostly closed. All the classroom doors had windows to allow anyone in the hall to look inside each room.

Exiting one of the rooms was a small boy with one of the teaching assistants. The entire teaching staff wore blue short-sleeve t-shirts with the school's logo embroidered on the left chest. The assistant was holding the boy's hand. The boy was dressed typically in a light blue and white cloud wash oversize t-shirt with five-pocket jeans and well-used blue sneakers. Jill didn't notice that after passing Jill and Linda, the pair entered the girls' restroom instead of the boys'.

Jill looked into one of the rooms. The rooms were spacious. There were eleven people in the room, nine students and two teachers (a teacher and an assistant teacher actually). The floor was hardwood and there weren't any desks. The walls were painted a mild shade of blue except for the back wall which had a colorful mural on it. The mural was a pastoral scene painted in primary colors, Hung on the wall, were painted wooden cutouts of animals (fox, dog, squirrel) and cute insects (ladybug, dragonfly) which gave a 3-d effect to the mural. On the hardwood floor, were colorful mats and long beams to run on and over. The children seemed to be running a kiddie obstacle course. Jill wasn't sure the children were playing follow the leader or had directions on how to negotiate the objects in their way. One of the teachers was in the midst of the children and doing what they did.

“Active play is a huge part of learning,” Linda explained. “The Stafford School offers gyms and multipurpose rooms as an extension of other learning. These versatile rooms are perfect for activities like yoga, aerobics, indoor soccer, and more.”

“The kids seem to be having a lot of fun.”

“As you can see our teachers can have just as much fun as our students.” Referring to the adult who was engaged in the childish activity.

The Role Swapper had swapped the role of the teacher with one of the students. The person who thought he was the teacher was watching the 'children'. This game was indeed 'followed the leader'. The teacher commanded the child in front what to do, such as stop, jump, run, go to the blue mat, etc.) The boy would do what was told and everyone after him including the adult would mimic the command.

Jill couldn't possibly know what was swapped between the people in this room. Hair, voices, heights, names, personalities, potty training (several of the toddlers were still in training pants), and even genitals (as well as the aforementioned role) had been swapped between everyone in the room. No one was spared, not that an outside observer would be able to notice.

The next classroom had two long desks. The children were separated by gender. One table for girls with a female teacher and one for boys with a male teacher. The teachers had childish ideas about the gender roles now. The man thought that all girls were stupid and had cooties and the woman thought that all boys were too rough and nasty.

One pair of the students (one boy and one girl) who were secretly dating. They couldn't let anyone know; the school frowned upon the staff fraternizing with each other. But they gave each other loving glances when they could. They would insist to their parents to be allowed to have a 'play date'. What would happen at that play date wouldn't be kids' stuff if they were left alone for too long.

“This is our art studio,” Linda informed Jill. “We also have a full-service kitchen for meals and snacks, a child learning kitchen where everyone learns how to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and the like, an exploration room, a dramatic arts space, and an imagination room.”

“What's the imagination room?”

“The kids can pretend to be anything they want.”

“Let me see it.”

“Let's go.”

On the way, Jill saw sort of a red blob out of the corner of her eye. She turned her head to look at it more closely, but it was gone. Jill didn't realize her apparel had changed, she was now wearing the white blazer, floral top, and slim-fit jeans that Linda had been wearing. Linda's outfit had changed to an girls' embroidered bunny two-piece set. The flutter-sleeve top is a rich blue with a white bunnyprint, the skort features a sketch bunny print on a white background. She wore them with perforated floral sandals. The outfit of the girl nearest to the door Linda and Jill had been passing. The little girl was now wearing what Jill had worn. None of the people involved noticed the change at all.

“Endoyin your dour?” a gentleman asked with the lisp and voice of a very young child.

Jill was speechless. Hearing a grown man talk like that. “Ummm, yes.”

“Good, your chiwd will lub id here. I pwomith”

“Who was that?” Jill asked as the man walked away.

“That's our principal.”

Linda didn't know why he was talking like that. She didn't try to explain. Jill was too embarrassed to ask.

When they got to the imagination room. It was a complete madhouse. Some boys were in dresses and other girly apparel. There was a topless girl running around and shooting everyone with her fingers. An adult was throwing stuff into the air. A boy half of the adult size was yelling at her to stop. Another adult clearly had a wet spot in her slacks' crotch that went down her leg. Two girls were sitting on a boy's chest and none of the teachers were helping him.

“We allow free expression here!” Linda tried to explain although she had never seen it as wild as this before.

“Free expression is one thing, but that is ridiculous!”

“I'm sorry.” Linda opened the door and entered the room. “What's going on!”

“He took my doll!” a boy yelled.

Jill waited outside as Linda tried to get control over the situation. It wasn't going well for her.

It was almost noon, the hall filled up with students and teachers who were bringing their charges to the cafeteria for lunch. Seeing the students and staff in the hall, Jill thought something didn't seem right about this place. She decided she would never send Melody here. She walked down the hall away from the imagination room. Then she saw that strange red blob out of the corner of her eyes again. She had become only three feet four inches tall. She didn't notice any difference as her apparel shrank to her new frame, although the hallway did seem longer to her and there was a little girl who was twice her height. Jill walked briskly towards the front entrance although she didn't run.

Tears started to form in her eyes as she started to worry. Her emotional maturity had been diminished. She started to rub the tears out of her eyes with her fists.

Her breasts and bra disappeared from her chest and were exchanged with the chest of a little boy. A moment later, her purse was gone, it was replaced with a single house key hanging around her neck with a lanyard. Soon she wasn't sure where she was going and started to follow the crowd toward the lunch room.

“Jill are you OK?” a little boy asked seeing Jill's distressed state.

Jill recognized the boy; it was her teacher.

“I think I'm lost,” Jill sobbed.

“You're not lost. You're with me. Come let's have some lunch. You'll like lunch today. They have pastgetti!” The boy said intentionally mispronouncing spaghetti.

Jill started to smile a bit. “That's not how you say it!”

“Yeah, it is.” The boy put his hand out and waited for Jill to take it. She did.

Her intellect dropped. She knew as much as a three-year-old.

“What's dat?” Jill asked pointing to the red blob.

“I don't see anything.”

Jill put her thumb in her mouth as she allowed herself to be led to the lunchroom.

In the parking lot, three-year-old Billy Preston took his car keys out of his purse. He opened what used to be Jill's car door and got in. The car had been altered to make it possible for him to drive. He put the key in the ignition, started the car, and drove home.

End